Creamy Shrimp Enchiladas
Shrimp Enchiladas are a delicious seafood dish that is easy to prepare and ready in under 45 minutes. Cheesy, creamy seafood enchiladas are packed with large shrimp, jalapenos, onions, tomatoes and all baked in spicy, creamy sauce.
If you like creamy enchiladas, try our Steak Enchiladas and Vegetarian Enchiladas.
Table of Contents
Shrimp enchiladas make a lovely dinner any day of the week! They are probably the fastest enchiladas that I make and can definitely be a nice week night dinner. Especially, if you’re looking to make a special dinner for someone.
These enchiladas were definitely fantastic: they’re cheesy, creamy, and spicy. (They can be as spicy as you wish!) THe combination of flavors and textures are so good, it’s hard to stop eating them.
All that gooey, melted cheese inside with shrimp, onions, tomatoes, and jalapenos, wrapped in a cream sauce soaked tortilla…ah, perfection! The best part is that you can adjust the heat to your liking. You can add more cayenne pepper (just be careful with how much you add) and add an extra jalapeno if you’d like a spicier dish.
Ingredient Notes
Shrimp – I like to use larger shrimp but size doesn’t matter as much as the quality. If you have access to fresh caught wild shrimp, that would be the best choice. If using frozen shrimp, make sure to thaw them completely first and drain off all the liquid. Make sure to peel and devein the shrimp as well.
Jalapenos – you can regular the spice level of your enchiladas with the chili peppers. Jalapenos are the milder variety so if you want to add more spice, you can add a serrano, red chili pepper, or a habanero pepper as well. You can also use older jalapenos, which are spicier, and keep the seeds in. Chili peppers store most of their spice in the seeds, so leaving them in will increase the spice level.
Onion – use yellow onion, white onion, or red onion. The flavor difference won’t be too noticeable, although red onion does tend to me a touch sweeter.
Monterrey Jack cheese – this cheese is beautiful to use in enchiladas because it has a mild flavor and melts nice and smooth. If you wish, you can use pepper jack cheese instead to add more chili pepper flavor.
Heavy Whipping Cream – heavy whipping cream will give you the richest, creamiest sauce but you can substitute half and half in a pinch. Just don’t go any less creamy than that.
Sour Cream – use full fat sour cream for the best results! I do not recommend substituting Greek yogurt because there is a good chance of curdling or separating when used in cooking.
Cooking Instructions
Make the sauce: Preheat oil in a large cooking pan over medium heat and add sliced onions and jalapenos (1). Let it sauté until they start to soften. Add in diced tomatoes and minced garlic, mix and sauté until veggies are cooked through (2).
While veggies are cooking, whisk heavy cream, sour cream, spices and salt in a mixing bowl or a large measuring glass and pour it into the pan with veggies (3). Stir slowly and carefully until completely incorporated (4) and lower the heat to medium-low.
Cook the shrimp: Add shrimp and cook, still over medium to medium-low heat, until shrimp just turned opaque on the bottom, flip and cook until shrimp turns opaque. Take off heat.
Build enchiladas: Spread some cheese in the center of each tortilla, in a line. Using slotted spoon, scoop out about a quarter of shrimp/veggie mixture, draining most of the sauce, into the tortilla. Spread the shrimp in the line over the cheese.
Roll the tortilla and place it in the baking dish, seam down. Repeat with remaining tortillas, shrimp and veggies.
Baking enchiladas: Pour sauce over enchiladas and spread remaining cheese on top. Bake shrimp enchiladas for about 15 minutes.
Recipe FAQs
Personally, I prefer to use flour tortillas in most of my enchilada recipes. But there is no need to debate, it all comes down to personal preference.
Flour tortillas are softer and sturdier, white corn tortillas do have a tendency to break and crumble. There is also a noticeable flavor and texture difference between the two types of tortillas, that is mostly where personal preference comes in. You can absolutely use corn tortillas if that is what you love or use flour.
If you choose to use corn tortillas in shrimp enchiladas, use larger size homemade or store-bought tortillas. DO use smaller shrimp because corn tortillas are prone to breaking and crumbling.
To soften corn tortillas, lightly brush or spray them with some oil and place them on a sheet tray. Bake at 325° for 3-5 minutes. After they’re warmed, stack them and cover with a damp warmed clean towel to keep them soft while rolling enchiladas.
I don’t usually recommend reheating seafood because it does not reheat well. If you do have to save leftovers and reheat them, definitely don’t reheat shrimp enchiladas in a microwave. Reheat them in a the baking dish, in the oven, at 325° until just heated through inside.
No, these shrimp enchiladas are not good to freeze because of the cream sauce and re-freezing seafood. I never recommend freezing seafood dishes because most people do use seafood in recipes that have been previously frozen.
Some More Shrimp Recipes To Make
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Shrimp Enchiladas Recipe
Ingredients
- 12-14 oz large shrimp
- 1-2 Tbsp vegetable oil for cooking
- 1 small yellow onion sliced thin
- 2 large jalapenos seeded or not, based on desired spice level
- 2 medium tomatoes “on a vine’ diced
- 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper to taste
- 1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- Salt
- 4 soft taco flour tortillas
- 8 oz Monterrey Jack cheese grated, divided in two
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° and grease a 9×9-inch baking dish.
- Preheat oil in a large cooking pan over medium heat. Add onions and jalapenos and sauté until they start to soften.
- Add diced tomatoes and minced garlic, mix and cook until all vegetables are cooked.
- While the veggies are cooking, whisk heavy cream, sour cream, spices and salt in a mixing bowl and pour it into the pan with veggies. Stir well and let it heat through and come to a slow simmer. Lower the heat to medium-low.
- Nestle in the shrimp in the sauce and cook, still over medium-low heat, until shrimp is opaque on the bottom. Flip the shrimp and cook until shrimp just turn all opaque and take off the heat.
- Use half the cheese to divide it among the four tortillas. Spread the cheese in the center of each tortilla, in the line.
- Using a slotted spoon, scoop out about a quarter of shrimp/veggie mixture, draining most of the sauce, into the tortilla. Spread them in the line over the cheese.
- Roll the tortilla and place it in the baking dish, seam down. Repeat with remaining tortillas, shrimp, and veggies.
- Pour the sauce over enchiladas and spread the remaining cheese on top.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes.
Video
Notes
- Flour Tortillas or Corn Tortillas: Flour tortillas are softer and sturdier, white corn tortillas do have a tendency to break and crumble. There is also a noticeable flavor and texture difference between the two types of tortillas, that is mostly where personal preference comes in. You can absolutely use corn tortillas if that is what you love or use flour.
If you choose to use corn tortillas in shrimp enchiladas, use larger size homemade or store-bought tortillas. DO use smaller shrimp because corn tortillas are prone to breaking and crumbling. - To soften corn tortillas, lightly brush or spray them with some oil and place them on a sheet tray. Bake at 325° for 3-5 minutes. After they’re warmed, stack them and cover with a damp warmed clean towel to keep them soft while rolling enchiladas.
- Reheating shrimp tortillas: I don’t usually recommend reheating seafood because it does not reheat well. If you do have to save leftovers and reheat them, definitely don’t reheat shrimp enchiladas in a microwave. Reheat them in a the baking dish, in the oven, at 325° until just heated through inside.
Nutrition
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Categories:
30 Minute Meals, Cinco de Mayo Recipes, Dinner Recipes, Enchilada Recipes, Mexican and Tex-Mex Recipes, Mexican Dinner Recipes, Most Popular Recipes, Seafood Dinner Recipes, Shrimp Dinner Recipes,All images and text ©Lyubov Brooke for ©Will Cook For Smiles. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe.
Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as most ingredients and brands have variations.
I made this twice now. I would classify it as “restaurant quality”. This is now my go to meal to impress!! Amazing!
I want to make it again, would it be good with canned diced tomatoes – like the rotel with green chiles? Just trying to think of how I can save time (& money).
Yes, you can use can tomatoes you will probably only need 1/2 cup of them and they won’t break apart as much as the fresh tomatoes, canned tend to stay together but that would work.
These were delicious ! I’m sometimes disappointed trying new recipes but this one was fantastic! Very flavorful without being to rich. My husband raved about how good they were. Will definitely make again
This recipe is amazing! Last night was the second time I’ve made these enchiladas for company, and got rave reviews. I used a combination of shrimp and shredded lobster meat and complemented the menu with a side of Mexican rice, cilantro and lime cole slaw and buttermilk biscuits.
Thank you Lyuba for this and all your other great tasting and no-fail recipes.
Hi Lydia,
Lobster sounds amazing in this dish I will have to give that a try! I am so glad you liked it! Thank you for taking the time to let me know! 🙂
is there a non spice shrimp anchalada
Hi Jaimie,
These are not very spicy because of the cream sauce. But if you don’t like any spice you can control the heat by adjusting the jalapenos and omitting the cayenne pepper. If you want to use jalapenos make sure to pick out the smallest ones with smooth skin and take out all the seeds and membrane ribs inside because that is were the heat is at and the smaller ones are less spicy. The chili pepper has a little spice but if you leave it out it will take out a lot of the flavors so I would leave that in if possible.
I love love love this recipe! It is delicious and versatile. I have made it 3 times in the past month. The first time I made it according to the directions which was great! The other times that I made it I substituted half & half for the heavy cream, used 10 small fajita tortillas with 3 shrimp in each tortilla and increased and substituted pepper jack cheese for the Monterrey Jack cheese. I serve it with Cesar salad and it is great leftover. Thank you for this amazing recipe!
Hi Kimberly,
So glad you liked it! Thanks for stopping by!
Better than any restaurant ever!!! A def make again!!!!
Wow! Thank you for the compliment, you made my day! I am so glad you liked them! 🙂
I made this last night and it was so good! I added more seafood because I had some I had to get used up but holy smokes. My husband ate 4 in about 30 minutes! Seriously the best seafood enchiladas I have ever made, I will definitely be making this again and again and again… Thank you for the recipe!
Hi Rita,
I am so happy to hear how much you liked them! Thank you for taking the time to let me know! 🙂
Best new recipe of the pandemic! Ooey-gooey deliciousness! I’m sure that this would work with artificial crab or chicken.
Thank you! So glad you enjoyed it! Stay Safe!
This recipe was insanely delicious!!! I failed to read directions close enough & the veggies were incorporated into the sauce 🙄 So inside the enchilada was cheese & shrimp, in a bit out of order, but EQUALLY as delicious! Quote from my 10 yr old son, “Mom, this one is a definite keeper!”
Awe thanks, Angie! I am so glad you liked it!!! 🙂
This was freaking delicious ❤️ Will for sure make it again. I made corn as a side and put some of the filling on the corn. So good.
This recipe is definitely a keeper. Made these last night for dinner and they were the bomb. I was a little short on the heavy cream by a half cup so I just used a half cup of 1/2 & 1/2 and a little extra sour cream. I never had a recipe for shrimp enchiladas so these were fun to make.
I am so glad you liked them, Kim!
These are amazing! I would say the flavor is gourmet. I plan on hosting a dinner party and making a large number of these….any advice on making ahead of time, the day of? What if I made the sauce portion (without shrimp) ahead, then reheat and add shrimp once ready to prepare and serve?
These were outstanding. My company loved them too. I’m making Mexican for next week and the person who is hosting this dinner does not eat seafood. Could I substitute chicken for the shrimp? I’m making the shrimp one’s too but rather than having to make 2 different recipes, I thought I would just put chicken in the other ones. What do you think?
Just delicious. Making it now and sampled the shrimp the taste I got was such a surprise for my mouth can’t wait to eat the entire enchilada. I wanted cheesy shrimp enchiladas and had no idea where to begin. Definitely keeping this recipe. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks, Lucia! I am so glad you liked it so much!!!! 🙂
I made these last week (I used pepper jack)…they are DELICIOUS and I will definitely make them again.
Thanks 💕
Thanks, Sharon! So happy you liked it!
So good. My kids and husband absolutely enjoyed them. Definitely a repeat.
Thanks, Britney! I love hearing that! 🙂
These are the best!!! I used the flour tortilla’s but, my daughter used Corn Tortilla’s (where she lives, they make them fresh but, only the corn tortilla’s). I have to say, I was worried mine wouldn’t be as good as my daughter’s but, they are amazing. I’ve made them for Company and everyone loved them. Great recipe.
I’m SO happy you and your friends liked it!!
Homemade corn tortillas sound fantastic.
Thank you, Chris 🙂
I am planning on serving this for Sunday dinner. Can I make the filling the day before and still have the same good results?
Hi Britt!
I’m sorry I didn’t get back to you right away. I wouldn’t recommend making the filling ahead of time in this particular recipe only because shrimp, much like most other seafood, should be eater right after being cooked and not very good reheated. When reheated, shrimp tends to be rubbery and tough.
I hope you enjoyed it or will enjoy it soon 🙂
I made this last night. Soooooooo good. I used almond milk and shredded sharp cheddar because I am lactose intolerant. It did make a ton of sauce so will make rice to go with as another reader suggested above. Great!
Oh awesome! I’m so happy that you were able to make this lactose free for you as well! Thank you so much for letting me know 🙂
I’m a queen of making enchiladas this one is a new for me.i definitely want to make husband is a huge seafood freak.what side dishes will work for this I know rice but would it be the traditional Mexican orange rice?
Hi Tracie!
I love experimenting with enchiladas so I’m hoping you’ll like this one 🙂
I don’t usually serve a side with enchiladas because it’s so filling but if I were to serve one, I would definitely go with a rice side. Cilantro rice or a traditional Mexican rice like you said.
I hope you both will like it!